


straight to the chase

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flying Doctors
Genre: Background Romance, Canon Het Relationships, F/M, Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 03:38:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12855936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: After the Cooper's Crossing reunion party, Kate and Chris have a long overdue catch up.





	straight to the chase

**Author's Note:**

> For fic_promptly | Friday: Free-For-All   
> Any, Any. "Well that was pretty direct"  
> http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/442485.html?thread=13912181%23cmt13912181

When Chris arrived at Kate and Geoff's house for lunch, she was immediately pulled into a hug by Kate the second she answered the door. "Geoff's at the base so it's just us girls," she told Chris as she led her into the living room. Chris was distracted from anything else Kate might have said by the sight of Scarlett lying in her playpen and she crossed the room in a flash to see the baby properly for the first time. "You can pick her up," Kate told her but Chris didn't need to be told, was already scooping her up. 

"She's beautiful, Kate," she told her after a minute. "Pictures don't do her justice." 

"Well, I agree, but I'm biased." Kate ran a finger down Scarlett's cheek. "And if you think I'm bad, you should see Geoff." 

Chris quirked an eyebrow. "Daddy's little angel?" 

"And then some." Kate rolled her eyes but the smile on her face negated that pretty effectively. "Come on into the kitchen... I made a chicken salad, I hope that's ok..." 

The table was set, along with two wine glasses, a bottle of white wine standing between them. Chris gave Kate a look as she shifted Scarlett off her hip and sat down carefully with the baby on her knee. "Isn't it a bit early?"

"It's five o'clock somewhere," Kate told her airily. "Besides, we need to talk." Another look from Chris and she shrugged. "Fine." Crossing to the fridge, she pulled out a bottle of lemonade. "Spritzers it is then." 

There may have been a tad more wine than lemonade in the glasses but Chris didn't complain, especially not when Kate sat down across from her. "So, all the gossip... well, the town hasn't changed a bit, Geoff is lucky I love him so much or I might just kill him half the time, Scarlett is amazing and that's enough about us; I want to hear all about you and Tom."

Even being Kate's friend for years and expecting the Spanish Inquisition, Chris was taken aback. "Well, that was pretty direct." 

Kate did not bat an eyelash. "Direct would be me asking you how many rooms you used last night at the Majestic." Chris didn't know if Kate was looking for a particular response with that, but she certainly got one because Chris felt her cheeks flooding crimson with heat. Kate's jaw dropped even as her eyes widened with either amusement or delight, it was hard to say which. "Chris!" 

Chris took a sip of her wine, suddenly wishing she hadn't insisted on the spritzer. When she laid the glass back on the table again, Kate was still grinning over at her, evidently waiting for the details and Chris would swear later upon a stack of Bibles that she had no intention of saying it, but what came out of her mouth next was the admission, "We missed breakfast too." 

Kate didn't say anything at first, but between her beaming smile and the way she topped up Chris's wine glass, there was instruction enough to keep talking nonetheless. When Chris was silent though, she raised her own glass to her lips. "And the Kimberly? We're not talking about just a business arrangement, are we?"

Chris shook her head and bit her lip, what seemed so simple looking into Tom's eyes twenty four hours ago suddenly seeming a lot less simple in the cold light of day. "It's crazy," she said. "I mean, I know it's crazy. We haven't seen each other in over a year, we haven't been together in years..." 

"But you two didn't split up because you didn't love one another." Kate was speaking the truth and they both knew it - there had been more than one boozy evening where Chris had cried on her shoulder and they'd taken it in turns creating new and ever inventive, less than flattering nicknames for Tom. "And when he came back, it was clear as crystal that you two still had feelings for each other, you just couldn't get out of your own way for long enough to do anything about it." 

Scarlett reached up and tugged at Chris's shirt and she looked down, smiling as the little girl grinned up at her. "I feel like I've been sleepwalking for most of the last year... more than that," she told Kate, not looking at her, but at Scarlett. "Taking care of Dad, then the funeral, then settling his affairs... I couldn't bear to sell the house, even though I don't think I'll ever live there again and it didn't make sense for me to be rattling around there alone. I found a nice family to rent it out to, found a small flat near to work... the people are ok, I made friends... but not like here." 

She looked up at that and Kate's grin was equal parts knowing and wicked. "There's not many places like Cooper's Crossing." 

"I missed it. I didn't realise how much until the invite came. And I looked around me and realised..." Chris had to swallow hard. "I didn't know what I was doing with my life. What I wanted. But I knew there had to be more than what I have in Melbourne. So I booked my ticket... Got the bus from Broken Hill... You know the rest." 

Kate shuddered and Chris knew she was remembering the bus crash, could only imagine what it would have sounded like over the CB radio, broadcast on speakers over the town square. "I've never seen anything like the look of relief on Tom's face when we heard your voice afterwards," she said and Chris smiled - that was one of the things Tom had told her about during their talk before the party. 

"When I woke up in the hospital and saw him there, I almost thought I was dreaming," she said and she didn't care if it sounded silly. "I never got over him, not really, even though I tried to tell myself I had. And then he came back to the hospital yesterday, before they discharged me ..." Her eyes dropped because as friendly as she was with Kate, as honest as they were with one another, she didn't want to go into all the details of what Tom had said to her - there were some things, she thought, that should remain private. 

"You don't need to tell me all the details." Kate waved her hand dismissively. Chris thought she might be getting away with it, then her friend's lips twitched. "Besides, I think I can guess..."

Chris's cheeks exploded with heat again and Kate laughed, obviously taking that as confirmation of her suspicions. Which she was perfectly right to do, so Chris couldn't exactly contradict her. "It was just like it used to be," she heard herself saying, a shiver running up her spine as snapshots of the night before danced through her mind - the feel of Tom's arms around her, the touch of his hands on her skin, his fingers in her hair, his lips finding the exact spot on her neck that always drove her crazy, the sound of his voice as he whispered her name. "Better, even." Which was something to admit, because what she remembered was pretty damn good. "Almost like we'd never been apart." 

There was the sound of a squeal, hastily stifled, that had Chris looking down at Scarlett in alarm. The baby, however, looked at least as confused as she did, and was staring over at her mother with eyes wide. Kate clapped both hands over her mouth, which caused Scarlett to let loose with a giggle that left a stream of bubbles coming out of her mouth and all Chris could do was laugh. 

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Kate was laughing too, waving her hand backwards and forwards in front of her face. "It's just... Chris, do you know how happy I am for the two of you?" 

Chris smiled, shifting Scarlett into a standing position, grinning at the baby as she bounced herself up and down. "I'm getting an idea." She tried to say it dryly but she didn't think she had much luck. "So you don't think I'm mad then?" 

"Oh totally." Kate's deadpan delivery made Chris start, but only momentarily. "But for other reasons. Not for this." 

"Well then." Chris out Scarlett sitting down again, took her up wine glass and held it out to Kate. "I'll drink to that." 

Kate clinked her glass against Chris's with a grin on her face that Chris didn't think would be disappearing any time soon. Of course, Chris knew that her own grin was the exact same so she didn't say anything. Instead, she relaxed in her chair, held her friend's baby and caught up on all the news she'd missed out on since she'd been gone, and she knew that coming back to Cooper's Crossing had been the best decision she'd made in months.


End file.
